Blog Design

This is my blog dilemma...I would really like to have a cute blog design, including a new background, header, and button. However, I don't use my blog to promote any products, and so I don't really want to spend a lot on it...or anything at all :) So, if you know anyone who is beginning a blog design business, and would like to "practice" on my blog, please let me know! I would be willing to pay a little bit, so if you do blog design, please leave a comment and I will contact you about prices (or if you have a webpage, direct me there).

I would like a nice, unified blog design, but I don't want to do it myself, and I see SO many teacher blogs that are just too cute!

Postcard Exchange

I recently joined a postcard exchange, and the ladies in charge are still looking for more states. I'm glad they needed Kansas because it seemed like so many of the postcard exchanges in bloggy land had Kansas already! (GO KANSAS TEACHERS!)



Anyway, here is the info on Proteacher.

Here are the states that are already participating:
Alabama
Connecticut
Florida
Illinois
Kansas
Louisiana
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Texas
(and I think New Jersey is out too).

Leave me a comment if you'd like to join, and I will forward your email addresses and state name to Emily, who is in charge! Because I'm just helping out, there is a chance your state may be taken, but I'll let you know. You can login to Proteacher and see if you can find another one that needs your state!

Also, last year I struggled to find Kansas postcards that wouldn't gouge me in the pocketbook. I even asked for discounts, and the only ones I could find were $1 a piece. I really didn't want to spend that much, plus postage. I ended up printing out a template on cardstock. The kids decorated the front side themselves with Kansas-themed pictures, and then we came up with what we wanted to say together. I typed it up onto a label, and we stuck it to the postcards. It was all well and good until I got to the post office and learned they were oversized postcards and would cost extra! EESH!! I was so sick of those things I just said, GET THEM OUTTA HERE! However, the kids loved the activity, and receiving the postcards, so it was all worth it.

I didn't want to go through that again this year, and then one day inspiration struck! I have created and ordered many things from Vistaprint. I got their annual clearance email and I saw postcards were FREE (plus shipping), and then I KNEW!

DUH! I could create postcards on Vistaprint!! What was even more awesome is that because Kansas is the Sunflower State, I was able to find several ready-made templates with sunflowers on them. Then, I personalized them with the state name and our class name and WALA!! Much cheaper postcards for our exchange! I am still SO HAPPY that the thought occurred to my overworked brain :) So anyway, that might be an option for you all doing postcard exchanges!

Anyway, hope you can join!

I Survived Linky Party

I know I said I was on hiatus...but I couldn't resist posting in response to Life In Special Ed's Linky Party. Sometimes I feel like I teach in a circus...being in the neighborhood we are in, we often get some students who...hmmm...trying to put this nicely...haven't learned certain social skills, maybe?  Anyway, this story kept me laughing for weeks.

I teach third grade, and one afternoon while the kids were packing up, I was talking to a small group of students when a kid called out, "Mrs. T, why is THIS in my chair pocket?" With one finger delicately held up, he showed the whole class he was holding a TRAINING BRA!! The kids erupted into giggles, and the boys "BLECH"ed, and I couldn't help but just laugh. There was a parent in the room, and when we made eye contact, she looked at me bewildered because she had been standing behind this boy's desk and hadn't seen the training bra make its way into his chair pocket. I went and got it from him, and then half-jokingly told him that I would "cleanse" his chair pocket.

Part 2 came about a week later. Again, we were packing up and I heard one of my students say, "Here's ANOTHER ONE! In JACOB's CHAIR POCKET!" One of my shyest students had this look of complete disgust and confusion on his face as another training bra was pulled out of his chair pocket.

I never solved the mystery of the training bra...I think the first one may have been an accident, because some of the kids bring changes of clothes to school because they are going to grandma's after school etc. I'm guessing it just fell out of a backpack in the end of the day shuffle. The second one?? Well, maybe one of my students has a funny sense of humor :)

And there it is :) I survived the training bra incident (and didn't get any phone calls from parents, CHA CHING!)

Hiatus

In case you are a new reader, I'm on a hiatus while my husband is in Brazil doing an internship for law school (and of course, I went with him!). However, I'm still able to read blogs, and I guess I could post if I wanted to, but I'm having a hard enough keeping up my "regular" blog! So this is my summer break from blogging...but I've been pinning ideas and checking and reading blogs everyday for new ideas!

Thanks for reading!

(the Teatro Municipal in Sao Paulo)

Duck, Duck, Goose

Today was our last day of summer school! Woo hoo! It was a lot of fun, but I'm ready for sleeping in! (Okay, really I only get like, two days to sleep in, but oh well!)

Here's what we have been up to the last few weeks:

Chasing flamingoes at the Topeka Zoo--

Turkey vulture at the zoo--

Pocket people biographies inspired by this blog post over at Primary Inspired--

Beach vs. Pool Glyphs and Acrostic Poems inspired by this blog post at Erica's Bohrer's First Grade--

This is why I love blogging...both of those projects were really enjoyable for the kids, plus they were EASY to differentiate for fourth graders.

We finished off today with a video about the American flag, a flag project, and a wet game of Duck, Duck, Goose.  While you are going around the circle saying duck, duck, goose, you also carry a splash ball that you drip over the kids' heads. When you get to the goose, you squeeze it nice and hard and yell "Goose!" It was a great way to stay cool in our 99 degree heat index today (it wasn't that hot then, don't worry!)


I'll be heading out for my husband's internship for five weeks and probably taking a break from this blog until August...I'll be excited to get back and see what you have come up with!

What Should I Do With This?

(picture from here...mine are green!)

These were one of my latest Dollar Tree finds...now I just need to decide what to do with them! I'm thinking maybe something fun during guided reading or math centers...OR something to do with Kagan, since we are a Kagan school and it seems to fit the 4-person model.

Any suggestions? Linking up at Ladybug's Teacher Files!

T2T Linky Party

I don't do too many linky parties, but this trash to treasure item fell into my lap thanks to one of my teaching friends.

You can find the linky party and giveaway here on Meghan's blog, Oh Boy 3rd Grade! (I guess she is 4th grade now!)

The great thing was I hardly had to do anything to it :) It needed cleaning and a cushion. With an extra pillow for comfort across the back, and the quilt made by my aunt for my graduation, this glider chair really is a treasure now!

  It went from this...

to this! Very cozy! I found the cushion on clearance at Target and loved the color and had to get it (much to the chagrin of my husband)!

Can't wait to see the other trash to treasure links! This wasn't bad for FREE +a $7 cushion!

Summer School

I've been working harrrrd this summer, so that July 1, my husband and I can do THIS!

Followers

Wow! I have 30 followers! That's pretty humbling for me. Honestly, I don't write this blog for followers. I started it at a point in the year last year where I needed a boost of positive energy. I had a difficult class last year, and things were constantly changing in our school and district. It was tough...and then I discovered teaching blogs! All those great ideas gave me the enthusiasm and encouragement to keep at it even when the job got me down sometimes. Now, I'm feeling so much better and REALLY looking forward to next year with all of the great resources I've found.

I probably won't have crazy giveaways or launch a TPT store, but I do want to document the things I've tried and my progress as a teacher. At the same time, I do love connecting with other teachers, and sharing ideas. I'm so thankful!

So, on that note, here are a few things I've worked on in the last few months.

I am soooo going to try Whole Brain Teaching...I think my kids need that infusion of energy, and I need a behavior system that isn't based on extrinsic rewards. We already do PBIS, and I felt like I was constantly bribing my students to act appropriately. I really want to get away from that this next school year, and this is where I'm going to start!

Whole Brain Rules Posters

Oh, and the reason the "Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat" poster has two hands on it is this: the kids show me a "one" for bathroom, and a "two" for tissues or garbage can. That way, I know exactly what they want to do, and I just nod yes or no. That also makes it nice for reading groups...I can just seem them and nod, and then they don't keep coming up to the table to interrupt.

These are labels I made for a bulletin board outside my room. It's from another idea I saw on blogland (shoutout if it was yours!), but I changed it to reflect our butterfly theme. Pictures of the board coming soon. Oh, and the font is cuter in real life, I didn't save it as a PDF first :)

Cocoon Labels


I borrowed this idea from Really Good Stuff. Last year I had the WORST tattlers. I tried tattle tickets, and lessons about tattling versus reporting. One student would tattle on EVERYONE, and then stand around and watch me, expecting me to DO SOMETHING right away. Drove me nuts. I have a stuffed bear with a butterfly headband who is going to be my tattle bear :) It's cheesy, but maybe it'll work. Again, cuter font on the real thing :)

Talk to Tattle Bear

Tangents

The funny thing about kids is that one minute you are talking about segregation and the next minute some kid is telling some real/fake story about how his uncle got a pistol in his back.

Or how someone threw a brick through a window because someone had been standing on somebody else's lawn and there was some graffiti about hating Mexicans (somehow those two things connected...I missed it!)

We went on a field trip to the Brown vs. Board of Ed (my school is two blocks down the street so we walked). The kids really enjoyed it.

The conversations above happened when we were talking about what kinds of things were done to the African Americans during segregation. Somehow the kids turned it into "Tell the scariest story I know and maybe embellish just a teeeeensy bit." The sad thing is that I wouldn't be surprised if there were more kernels of truth in them than untruth. Most of them don't come from fabulous homes or neighborhoods.

I guess the best case scenario is that they remember those feelings of fear or anxiety when they are tempted to treat someone unfairly or unkindly...maybe all of those "tall tales/real life experiences" will help them understand empathy.

Pinterest

Have you guys been using Pinterest? I started out pinning crafting and style ideas and inspiration, but I've started branching out into classroom ideas and it's been fun! It helps me organize all of those fun things I see on blogs, plus it helps you directly link back to those sites.

This is me:

http://pinterest.com/methomason/

Come on over and see what it's about! Do you have boards?

My space

(These three bulletin boards are the ONLY bulletin boards I have in my room! Yes, tiny!)

These are some pictures from a few years ago when I first moved into my new classroom.

I write this post to say I'm so excited because we are getting DESKS!! I know a lot of you are probably happy with tables, but we have odd-shaped rooms to begin with, and these hideous trapezoid-shaped tables were just the right size to run into all the time! The one nice thing about them was that we could move them around and manipulate them a lot of different ways. However, the tables often had legs that would loosen up really easily, making them wobbly. Also, because we have 24-25 students, it got really cramped fitting them all in around the tables.

We do a lot of Kagan cooperative learning in our district, and whenever our presenters came, they would have to be invited to see our tables because they really don't work well for Kagan leveling. We definitely had to be more creative in our arrangements. So, I think we are excited to be able to do Kagan more easily.

So, out with tables and in with desks! I know desks come with their own sets of challenges, but the kids won't have to drag as many things back and forth between their tables and cubbies, and I think that will make it worth it right there!